Regional Manager, Partner Development & Account Management, Asia Pacific

Please Note: This role requires the ability to work on site 3 days per week per company policy.

The World Economic Forum is an international organization that brings together leaders from business, government, academia, and civil society to build industry, regional and global agendas, address systemic issues, and improve the state of the world.

The Regional Business Team is responsible for building and managing the strategic engagement and development of existing and new Forum Partners in Asia Pacific, China, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, South Asia and Japan across Industry Communities, the 11 Forum Centres and our Forum events.

We are currently searching for a Regional Manager, who will focus on overseeing and reinforcing strategic relationships and interactions with senior executives from select Forum Partner companies in the Asia Pacific Region, lead the development and conversion of a pipeline of new Forum Partners, and lead internal collaboration with strategic stakeholders. The region comprises ASEAN countries, Korea, North Asia and Australasia.

Responsibilities include:

Partner Management:

·        Oversee and maintain executive-level relationship with CEOs and C-suite executives for a portfolio of select Partners, ensuring Partner engagement across industry and regional activities, Centres’ initiatives and in key Forum events

·        Develop in-depth understanding of Partners’ strategies and priorities, and of the regions and industry sectors in which they operate

·        Ensure retention by developing tailored engagement plans for Partners within assigned portfolio to address their priorities and deepen their engagement in the most relevant Forum activities; oversee successful implementation and address early disengagement signs in collaboration with the Partner Success Team

·        Contribute to building institutional knowledge and memory of the assigned portfolio by ensuring all Partner interactions are accurately documented through the CRM; ensure operational excellence through prompt follow ups  on agreed actions

·        Monitor Partner news and health, and quality and depth of engagement across Industries, Centres and Forum events (on a recurrent basis) to identify risks for engagement; communicate detected risks and take the lead on developing comprehensive risk mitigation strategies

·        Translate opportunities for expanded Partner engagement into upgrades by working in close collaboration with Industry, Centres and Partner Success Teams

·        Ensure smooth offboarding of Partners, when required

Partner Development:

·        Spearhead and coordinate the partner development efforts across the Asia Pacific region; collaborate closely with the Head of Region and the Partner Development Services team to ensure systematic and strategic approach

·        Manage the region’s collaboration and interface with relevant Heads of Industries, ensuring that relevant colleagues are leveraged and deployed for new partner development

·        Visit Potential Partners on a recurrent basis to discuss institutional priorities, advancing new partnership discussions in collaboration with the Partner Leads from the region

Regional Collaboration:

·        Manage the collaboration with the Government engagement team to ensure opportunities for public-private dialogue are identified and leveraged

·        Contribute to design on the regional value proposition to ensure strategic relevance to the Partners in the Asia Pacific Region, ensure partner engagement in relevant regional communities and initiatives

·        Collect and share best practices of Partner engagement, and fostering collaboration across regional business teams to ensure cross-regional dialogues are identified and leveraged

·        Support the development of marketing materials, public engagement, and communication strategy for the regional communities.

To be successful, a Regional Manager should:

•       Build and maintain a strong collaboration network of internal stakeholders, including Industry, Centres, Government, Partner Development and Partner Services teams

•       Coordinate Partner Development efforts across the region, build and close a pipeline of potential Forum Partners to support the growth of the portfolio in the region

•       Build strategic relationships with senior executives to develop and tailor Partner engagement plans based on their business priorities and relevant trends for their regions of incorporation and industry sectors

•       Monitor and proactively manage Partner engagement metrics and resulting actions to ensure retention

•       Ensure CRM is used to its full capacity and that Partner information is duly documented and available to all and used to deepen Partner relationships with the Forum

•       Ensure a ‘One-Forum’ approach by working close with all internal stakeholders and relevant teams to guarantee an optimal Partner engagement experience.

Preferred Requirements and Experience:

•       Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

•       7+ years of relevant professional experience, including engagement at senior level with the private sector stakeholders in the Asia Pacific region

•       Proven experience engaging with business leaders at senior executive level, to understand business strategy and to translate business requirements into concrete business solution proposals, influencing engagement at the highest senior executive level

•       Strong capacity to build trust, influence Partnership decisions and make a compelling case for engagement with potential Partners, with proven track record in building and converting partnership pipelines

•       Capacity to apply critical thinking, synthesize various viewpoints, consult broadly and work collaboratively across matrix organizations

•       Outstanding communication skills and command of English; fluency in Korean and/or an Austronesian language is a plus

•       Strong service orientation and entrepreneurial attitude

•       Ability to travel up to 40% for Partners and Potentials visits

Why work at the Forum:

The Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas, and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change!